Breach blunder in added-time costs Clogherinkoe as Moorefield steal a late late draw

Moorefield stole a point from a certain defeat when Aaron Martin pegged back Clogherinkoe right at the death of their Joe Mallon Motors SFC Group D Round 2 meeting.

The Cloghs led for most of the second half and looked set to hold on when the five minutes of added time had elapsed. With Moorefield in possession, the crowd erupted with shouts of ‘BREACH’ and sure enough The Moores had done so, having strayed from three kept back.

However, despite some generous reminders from the supporters in Manguard Park, the free for Clogherinkoe was not given (having almost been awarded to Moorefield) before being thrown up.

The Moores won possession, levelled things, and Clogherinkoe’s knockout hopes took an enormous dent in the cruelest of fashion.

Much earlier in the day, Jack Robinson opened the scoring with a lovely point from out wide that served as an early indication of the kind of form he was in on the day.

Mark Murray levelled with a free for Moorefield who were hitting their towering full-forward pair of Ryan Moore and Dan O’Callaghan early and often. Both used their physicality to fashion early goal chances which were prevented by Clogherinkoe heroics from full-back David Hill and goalkeeper Keith Wilkinson.

Moore did put The Moores ahead after a kick-out landed straight in his lap and he curled over.

Robinson levelled things again and with another score at each end the sides were no further apart after 10 minutes of play.

Luke Sweeney raised the game’s first orange flag for Moorefield who were moments later denied the game’s first green one by Keith Wilkinson.

Robinson continued his sumptuous shooting with a super point from the right wing.

Back-to-back scores, a rarity in the first half, from Moorefield pushed them into a three-point lead with Tommy McGrath and Ryan Moore scoring.

A coolly slotted free from Jimmy Lynch kept The Cloghs in touch but Moorefield restored their advantage with another drilled effort just above the crossbar.

With Moorefield in the ascendancy, Clogherinkoe were level in the blink of an eye when Tom Kinsella’s kick-out found the worst possible target in the form of Jack Robinson. The Clogherinkoe star’s heart-rate seemingly never raised as he strolled towards goal, stepped past the ‘keeper and found the net to restore parity.

He followed that goal with a wonderful score from another acute angle and two minutes later, The Cloghs had a four-point lead when Rian Cully slipped in Kildare U20 star Jimmy Lynch who found the far corner of the net with a classy finish.

It was a brilliant blitz by Clogherinkoe but they had their newfound lead halved late on with two frees which were brought up for dissent and both of which were knocked over by Evan O’Brien.

Regardless of those ill-advised decisions late on, The Cloghs led 2-6 to 0-10 at the break.

Robinson continued his scoring form after the break with a skyward effort that dropped over the bar, but Mark Murray had a quick answer at the other end which meant the gap remained two in a busy five-minute spell after the restart.

Clogherinkoe put in a huge amount of work in the middle part of the second half and put over three of the game’s next four scores. Mark Nolan, Lynch and Cein McMonagle raised white flags with a two-pointer from Ryan Moore keeping Moorefield within three with 15 minutes to go.

The Moores put together a powerful run of three scores without reply to level things. Evan O’Brien’s free was followed by points from Mark Murray and second half substitute Tommy Rooney to do so.

Clogherinkoe responded to the loss of their lead superbly with Jimmy Lynch winning and converting a free before Mark Nolan slotted a stellar two-pointer after a jinking run from Aedan Boyle set him up.

Another Evan O’Brien free and a Mark Grehan score on the counter-attack had Clogherinkoe three ahead at 2-14 to 0-17 when the game crossed the hour mark and into the five minutes of added time.

Mark Murray shouldered the responsibility of getting Moorefield back within touching distance when he took on a two-pointer from well outside the arc and found his target to reduce the gap to the minimum.

Murray’s late injection of quality was the last score before the drama of the uncalled breach and Aaron Martin’s leveller as Moorefield somehow secured an 0-20 to 2-14 draw in the dying embers.

Clogherinkoe: Jack Robinson 1-5 (0-1 frees), Jimmy Lynch 1-4 (0-2 frees), Mark Nolan 0-3 (1 x 2pt), Cein McMonagle 0-1, Mark Grehan 0-1.

Moorefield: Ryan Moore 0-5 (1 x 2pt), Evan O’Brien 0-5 (0-4 frees), Mark Murray 0-5 (1 x 2pt), Luke Sweeney 0-2 (1 x 2pt), Tommy McGrath 0-1, Tommy Rooney 0-1, Aaron Martin 0-1.

CLOGHERINKOE: Keith Wilkinson; Aedan Boyle, David Hill, Rory Phelan; Andrew Hill, Killian Galligan, Daire Travers; Caelum Flanagan, Daniel Grehan; Jimmy Lynch, Fionn Casey, Cein McMonagle; Jack Robinson, Rian Cully, Mark Nolan. Subs: Mark Grehan for Fionn Casey (51 minutes), Sean Dennihan for Mark Nolan (60 minutes), Conor O’Donoghue for Rory Phelan (63 minutes).

MOOREFIELD: Tom Kinsella; Liam Callaghan, Mark Dempsey, Sean Dempsey; Anthony Durney, James Murray, Dan Hanniffy; Tommy McGrath, Aaron Masterson; Luke Sweeney, Kevin Murnaghan, Mark Murray; Evan O’Brien, Ryan Moore, Dan O’Callaghan. Subs: Tommy Rooney for Kevin Murnaghan (42 minutes), Conor Walsh for Liam Callaghan (43 minutes), Eoin Meehan for Anthony Durney (44 minutes), Conor Swan for Sean Dempsey (53 minutes),

Referee: Alan Archbold